Goblin Copter

The Goblin Copter is a creature that was added with the Part 4: Sky City DLC for the PC released July 10th 2012. Goblin Copters are monsters that fly above traditional defenses, directly along a set path towards the Eternia Crystals. They possess the unique ability of airlifting Ogres over hero defenses. A notification pops up upon their arrival.

Contents

Behavior

Spawns on the map already loaded with an ogre. They do NOT pick ogres up off the ground once they have dropped one off.

Enters the map at the same places wyverns spawn, however their flight path varies to drop ogres off at different places. They do not spawn in maps where there are no Wyverns.

While carrying an Ogre, the Ogre itself is invulnerable until dropped off.

While in flight, they will occasionally shoot off a flare that distracts ranged towers. The towers will target the flare instead of the Goblin Copter. Minions, however, are not distracted by flares.

When within range of heroes or defenses, they fire rockets at a fairly consistent rate. These rockets deal above-average damage that can quickly whittle away defenses' and heroes' health. Rockets also home in on heroes and defenses.

When destroyed, they make a distinct robotic sound before spiraling and crashing into the ground. Any heroes caught in the explosion will be dealt heavy fire damage.

If destroyed before reaching their drop-off zone, they drop their ogre. If dropped out of bounds, the Ogre is killed. If the ogre happens to land on solid ground, they land with only 30% of their original health (70% damage).

Ogres successfully dropped off do not target or damage Eternia Crystals. Instead, they seek to destroy all tangible defenses, allowing other enemies easy access to the crystal (including regularly spawned Ogres, which DO damage them).

Strategy

The most effective way to counter Goblin Copters is to ensure they are destroyed over pits, before they drop off their ogre. This prevents having to deal with the ogre as well as their explosion upon being destroyed.

Reflection Beams are an excellent way to prevent damage from rockets fired by Goblin Copters. Depending on the copter's location, their consistent rate of fire can even help your defenses with the reflected rockets.

When firing rockets, they stay perfectly stationary in the air at about jump height. This gives both melee and ranged heroes an opportunity to take them out before they cause significant damage to defenses.

Towers firing at Goblin Copters as soon as they spawn can kill the copter before they begin firing flares. Deadly Striker Towers or Harpoon Turrets with a large Defense Radius set on the edge of the map can accomplish this.

Towers with slow Defense Attack Rates such as Deadly Striker Towers are more likely to get distracted by the flares. Unless they are able to shoot the Copters before they begin firing flares, defenses with higher attack rates are preferable.

The Ogres they drop are significantly stronger, doing far more damage and having far more health.

The total enemies per wave counts both the Goblin Copter and the Ogre it carries as separate enemies. However, the total enemies per Creep Door does not. Because of this, the sum of the total enemies per Creep Door for all doors does not equal the total enemies per wave.